A Wind Named Amnesia DVD

In 1999, a mysterious wind sweeps across the entire Earth — and in its wake, humanity is left empty. Not dead, but hollowed out. Every person on the planet loses all memory: language, knowledge, identity, civilization itself. Society collapses overnight. Two years later, a young man named Wataru wanders through the ruins of what was once the United States of America. Unlike the others, he has been painstakingly re-taught to think and speak by a lone survivor of a government experiment — and now he travels alone, carrying the weight of a world that has forgotten itself. In San Francisco he encounters Sophia, a beautiful and enigmatic woman who knows far more than she will reveal, and together they journey across the shattered American landscape — from Los Angeles to New York — witnessing what remains of humanity when stripped of everything civilization ever gave it.

A Wind Named Amnesia is a quietly remarkable post-apocalyptic film from Madhouse, adapted from the 1983 novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi — the author of Vampire Hunter D and Wicked City — with the screenplay co-written by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Rather than the explosive action of most anime films of its era, it unfolds as a philosophical road movie, using the backdrop of an amnesiac America to ask what human beings truly are beneath the layers of society and memory. The production values are exceptional, the score is haunting, and the film's willingness to sit with its questions rather than answer them neatly has earned it a devoted cult following among fans of thoughtful, cerebral anime. 

Notable Staff & Voice Talent

Director: Kazuo Yamazaki
Screenplay: Yoshiaki Kawajiri & Kazuo Yamazaki (based on the novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi)
Original Novel: Hideyuki Kikuchi (Vampire Hunter D, Wicked City)
Studio: Madhouse
Music: Kazz Toyama

Cast:
- Kazuki Yao as Wataru
- Keiko Toda as Sophia
- Kappei Yamaguchi as Johnny
- Noriko Hidaka as Lisa
- Osamu Saka as Simpson
- Daisuke Gori as Little John

DVD Features

- Central Park Media Previews

Spoken Languages: English & Japanese Audio, English Subtitles

Edition Details

Japanese Title: 風の名はアムネジア (Kaze no Na wa Amunejia)
Runtime: ~80 Minutes
Director: Kazuo Yamazaki
DVD Release Year: 1999 (U.S. Release)
Original Release Date (Japan): December 22, 1990
Publisher: Central Park Media
Rating: Unrated
Region: Region 1 (U.S. / Canada)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Post-Apocalyptic, Drama
Themes: Memory & Identity, Collapse of Civilization, Road Journey, Human Nature, Philosophical Sci-Fi

Media assumed VG+ unless otherwise noted.